Monday

Nov 19, 2018 at 8:09 AMNov 29, 2018 at 4:48 PM

Early voting and polarizing political views helped fuel robust turnout across Massachusetts, even though fewer people are voting than past decades.

More than 2.7 million Massachusetts residents cast ballots on Nov. 6, representing the highest amount for a midterm election in two decades. Early voting accounted for 21.6 percent of total votes and proved popular for the second consecutive election. It was first allowed in 2016.

“People were able to vote any way they wanted,” explained Marlene B. Chused, town clerk of Sharon, where overall turnout totaled 70 percent of registered voters.

Statewide turnout totaled at least 61.27 percent of registered voters, marking the highest turnout for a midterm election since 1994 when Republican voters across the country turned out in droves in a rebuke to then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

In Massachusetts, then-incumbent Senator Ted Kennedy, a Democrat, faced a formidable, yet ultimately unsuccessful challenge from Mitt Romney, a Republican. Romney went on to become Massachusetts governor and this year was elected to represent Utah in the Senate.

Like 1994, Massachusetts voters this year were likely inspired by national politics to show up at the polls, explained Waltham City Clerk Robert Waddick.

“A lot of it was generated by the constant discussion about what the president is doing and what he’s not doing. There’s so much attention on the day-to-day news cycle,” Waddick said, referring to President Donald Trump, a Republican. “Massachusetts is one of the bluest of blue states. My guess is that a lot of the people that were coming out to vote were reacting to some of the stuff that’s happening in Washington that they’re not happy with.”

In Waltham, 63.5 percent of voters turned out, compared to about 49.6 percent in 2014 and 49.4 percent in 2010, the two previous midterm elections.

“Election day was crazy. It was absolutely nuts. We had to bring more ballots to more locations and we had lines almost like it was a presidential election,” Waddick said.

Presidential elections typically turn out more voters than midterm elections. In 2016, when Trump was elected president, 74.5 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Massachusetts.

Since 1994, when statewide turnout totaled 70.8 percent, no more than 57.3 percent of Massachusetts voters have turned out for a midterm election. In 2014, the last midterm election turnout totaled 50.8 percent.

The numbers look even worse during local municipal elections, Waddick added.

“For municipal elected officials it’s frustrating. You want to see bigger numbers. And it’s ironic because the decisions that affect people’s lives the most are made at the local level, not the state and national levels,” he said. “You’d think there’d be a bigger interest but the numbers are never as large.”

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In Sharon, about 17 miles southwest of Boston, 70 percent of registered voters turned out this year, exceeding the statewide turnout rate. The Sharon total was 13 percentage points greater than the 57 percent of voters who turned out there in 2014.

“Sharon is a voting community. We vote. We always have a higher turnout than other communities,” Chused said. “People wanted to have a voice this year.”

Despite this year’s robust turnout, however, statewide numbers still pale in comparison to the 1950s and 1960s when turnout peaked at 81.4 percent (1962) and never fell below 76 percent.

Early voting has helped, election officials say. More than 1 million people, representing about 30 percent of voters, turned out early in 2016. This year, about 584,000 people -- representing roughly 21.6 percent of voters -- voted early.

But the convenience of early voting, which gives residents the opportunity to vote without reason during the two weeks prior to Election Day, doesn’t come without cost. State Auditor Suzanne Bump released a report after the 2016 election determining municipalities spent $1 million in unfunded, mandated costs. A similar report is not yet available for this year.

The state, which made some grant funding available to municipalities that opened polls during weekend hours, will likely have to make good on the unfunded costs again, and cities and towns are already tallying overall costs.

“Elections are like snow removal. You have to do it, but sometimes you blow through the budget pretty quickly,” Waddick said.

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Eli Sherman is an investigative and in-depth reporter at Wicked Local and GateHouse Media. Email him at esherman@wickedlocal.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.